TORONTO (Reuters) – A 24-year-old firefighter was killed by a falling tree while battling a forest blaze in northeast Jasper in the western Canadian province of Alberta on Saturday, the police said in a statement.
The deceased was a resident of Calgary and based out of the Rocky Mountain House Fire Base, the police said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it was notified of a serious injury sustained to an Alberta Wildland Fire employee on Saturday afternoon who was extracted from the scene.
Nearly a third of Jasper’s structures were destroyed when a massive wildfire, with flames burning 330 feet high, hit the popular Alberta tourist town in late July.
“Our deepest condolences also go to his fire-line crew, the 700-person strong team working in Jasper, and the larger Alberta Wildfire community,” Alberta’s Minister of Forestry and Parks Todd Loewen said in a social media post on X.
(Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Toronto;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
